Because of the increasing need for weapons systems security and for safeguarding individual weapons system components, such as artillery projectiles, high explosive devices and nuclear warheads, there exists at present a demand for shipping and storage containers for such devices. Such a container should be capable of containing an explosion of a device held therein for the safety of personnel and property in the surrounding vicinity. Moreover, a container which holds a detonated device may be altered thereby so that visual monitoring, even at a distance, will uncover a container or containers holding detonated devices.
Shipping and storage containers contemplated for weapons components must be capable of being handled by military or other authorized personnel without extreme difficulty, and should also be capable of being shipped by rail, truck, plane, ship or the like with reasonable dispatch. At the same time, it may be desirable for the containers to be sufficiently bulky and heavy that their theft cannot be easily carried out. For example, the containers could be sufficiently light to be handled by military personnel having the proper equipment and carried by, for example, two and a half ton military trucks, cargo planes, ships and railroad cars. The containers, however, could be sufficiently difficult to handle that they could not be manually lifted by two or three men and loaded into a half or three-quarter ton pickup truck.
Explosives containers should be sufficiently sturdy that they will, as well as contain an explosion of the device therein, withstand ground fire from, for example, thirty caliber military weapons, the pounding of sledge hammers and inadvertant dropping from heights up to ten feet, without sustaining sufficient damage to detonate the device therein or reducing the explosion containing capability of the container or damaging the contained device. Containers must also be capable of protecting the devices contained within from injury such as might be encountered during routine handling by authorized personnel. Both the contained explosive device and the safeguarding electronics within the container must be protected.